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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[boll. 60 



the miners had been seeking in various directions for pay streaks 



of the mica-bearing vein. 



The " Sink Hole " mines, probably so named before the artificial 

 character of the old pittings had been fully deter- 



sink Hole Mines mined, are located in the hill country near Bandana, 

 Mitchell County, 8 miles northeast of Burnsville and 



3 miles north of Boonford, a station on the Carolina, Clinchfield & 



Ohio Railway. At Spruce Pine the writer had the good fortune to 



meet William Eobinson, 

 part owner and part op- 

 erator of the mines, who 

 generously volunteered to 

 accompany him to the 

 mines and furnished 

 much information re- 

 garding both the origi- 

 nal appearance of the 

 aboriginal pittings and 

 the modern work done in 

 them. 



Although the mines 

 have been operated ex- 

 tensively in recent years, 

 sufficient traces of the 

 old work remain, coupled 

 with the explanations 

 furnished by Mr, Rob- 

 inson, to convey a very 

 complete notion of the 

 character and extent of 

 the prehistoric w ork. 

 There are two main 

 groups of the pittings, as 



Fig. 116. Sketch map showing the relation of the indicated On the sketch 

 Robinson and Sink Hole mines. ,„ -,^^\ , 



map (hg. 116). ^1 is 

 known as the Robinson mine, while B is more commonly referred 

 to merely as the Sink Hole mine. 



The Robinson mine is said to be the site of the initial operations 

 by General Clingman. The ancient workings consist 

 The Robinson Mine of a line of cxcavatioHS extending up the crest of a 

 low rounded spur of the hills a quarter of a mile from 

 Bandana post office. Beginning a few hundred feet north of the 

 creek which drains the valley, the pittings extend with one slight in- 

 terruption for a distance of 300 to 100 feet up the spur in a north- 



